Saturday, November 18, 2006

Afghanistan And the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare by Hy S. Rothstein describes the problems that they United States has had in its counterinsurgency policy in Afghanistan. The author suggests that special Forces are the only ones that can do counterinsurgency. This would seem to be an overstatement. It just takes a different set of training goals for regular Forces. There's quite a bit on the infighting within the Pentagon about unconventional warfare i.e. counterinsurgency throughout the decisionmaking process on Afghanistan. An excellent summary. There's also a description of why the military dislikes doing counterinsurgency. In his view the special Forces need to be made into a separate force which also bypasses the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A little surprising that he never brought up the Air Force analogy. the Revolution in military affairs also comes in for some criticism.